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'Panther' profits are not owed

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. doesn't owe any profits from the "Pink Panther" films to the heirs of a man who co-wrote the first movie treatment about the bumbling Inspector Jacques Clouseau, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday.

Heirs of Maurice Richlin claimed in a lawsuit against MGM that Richlin's role in writing the initial plot outline in 1962 made him a co-author of the 1963 film "The Pink Panther" and its nine sequels, giving them rights to the movie's copyright.

An appeals court in San Francisco disagreed, saying Richlin assigned all rights to the treatment to a production company that made and copyrighted the film.